CHAPTERS CHAPTER - I _ INTRODUCTDN. CHAPTER - I INTRODUCTION India is a religious country having diversity of relig io n since ancient time. Politically, India prior to 1947 A.D., is today divided into three nations i.e. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Even Nepal and part of Afghanistan were included in ancient India, where numerous rulers ruled and patronized these religions i.e. Hindu, Buddhist and Jain, as a result numerous icons have been created some of which are syncretistic icons. The study of syncretistic icons will be incomplete if the parts of ancient India mentioned above will not be included while dealing with the subject matter. Therefore, the area selected by the researcher is entire undivided country and Nepal, and period of study will normally be from ancient time to the 13th Century. The syncretistic image means combination of two or more gods or goddesses within a single body. Some of the gods show various aspects within their body, these aspects are depicted at a time in a single body. When various aspects of a god or goddess are shown at one and the same time within a single body, the image is also considered as a syncretistic icon for it is synthesisation of various aspects. Some other types of syncretisms are also available in which gods or goddesses belonging to two different religions such as the Brahmanical Hindu deities on the one hand and the Buddhist and Jain deities on the other hand are found united together. There is difference between syncretistic and composite images. In syncretistic image two or more deities unite together to form a single deity, for example ; Ardhanarisvara-Siva, Hari- / _ Hara, Siva-Rama, Surya-Nirayana, Vitthala, Trimurti, Dattatreya, Panchayatana-L inga, Vaikurithanatha, Visvarupa-Visnu and Mahisasuramardini etc. Whereas in composite image two or more deities or more beings even human being or animal may unite together to form a single body, for example - Ganesa, Nrsimha, Haya-griva, Kinnara, Gandharva etc. This category also include some other forms i.e. half human and half bird, half animal half bird, half human and half fish, half human and half reptile etc. These composite images can not be considered as syncretistic images, Gaciesa are the combination of human and animal being but they represent only one deity and other forms mentioned above are not the god hence not the object of worship and these do not fall under the syncretistic images. The syncretistic icon may be defined as "The combination of two or more gods or goddesses of the same or different religions or various aspects of god or goddess in a single body-form". The subject is too vast hence to limit it only the Brihmanical syncretistic images are studied here. At some places just for explaining certain aspects of themes the images other than Brihmanical deities taken in consideration. Earliest archaeological evidences of syncretism have been found from the length and breadth of India in ancient period. From the Harappan sites like Mohanjodaro, Harappa etc. large number of Lihga-Yoni motif have been discovered which are believed to be the combined form of Siva and Sakti in symbolic form (Nagar 1989 ; 10). According to Zimmer (1955 : 24) this form of symbol worship was most prominent in the Indus civilization in the third millennium B.C. which is still the most common object of the Hindu religion, in temples and houses. This symbolic form later on conceived as an iconic form which became popular and is known as Ardhanarisvara-Siva. Images of this deity are available since Kusana period to the modern period and found in all parts, right from Nepal to Ta'milnadu and Pakistan to Banglaidesh. Ardhanarisvara form of other gods like Visnu, Krsna, Brahma, Ganesa and Kubera are also available. But these images are not widely spread in the country like that of Ardhanirisvara-Siva. Images of Ardhanarisvara-Visnu are found in north India and Nepal. Very few images of Ardhanarisvara-Ganesa and Ardhanarisvara-Surya have come that too from central India and Rajasthan. Images of Ardhanirisvara form of Krsna, Brahma, Kubera and Lak^mi-Radhika are not available in Indian art, they are only mentioned in ancient literature. Hari-Hara is another popular deity, images of which are available everywhere since Kusana period. Some other syncretistic images like Trimurti, Brahma-Visnu-Siva-Surya, Chaturmukhalihga, Panchayatana-Linga, Vaikunthanitha, Dattitreya, Visvarupa-Visnu and Mahisasuramardini are also available. Some more images of syncretistic nature are found in some part of the country i.e. Siva-Surya, Marttanda-Bhairava, Surya- Brahma, Surya-Narayana. Hari-Brahma, Vithoba, Laksmi-Saraswati, afrtBfni-S arQGwat i and V is varupa-S i v a . Dnly one image of Siva-Rama, Hari-Brahma, Visnu-Krsna respectively is available so far in India. All these syncretistic icons will be studied considering their concept, literary references and illustration in chronological order. AnPiPnt literature also invoke about these syncretistic images. Vedic literature and Puranas are the main source of obtaining information about these deities. Epics and other works like Silparatna, Britatvanidhi, Brimadbhagavadgita, Rupamandana and Sivagita, etc. are also the sources of information. In modern times number of scholars studied and tried to bringforth the significance of the syncretistic images, the foremost among these are : 1) T.A.Gopinath Rao (1985a, 1985b, 1985c and 1985d) mentions the concepts and references from ancient literatures. He de5crib3d the iconography of Ardhanirls'^vara-Si va in detail. Scholars who are working on this theme are benefited with this as it is not found in any other parallel work. Beside Ardhanirisvara-Siva, he also discussed many other syncretistic images. 2) Work of G.H.Khare (1939) is also valuable. He mentions almost all the syncretistic images in short giving references of all possible sources. These are important for researchers in the field. The quality photographs given by him being very clear are very useful to know the features in details. 3) J.N.Banerjea (1956) has given a separate chapter on "Syncretistic Icons" but he left some of the important images like Ardhanarisvara-Visnu, Vithoba, Siva-Rima, and female syncretistic deities. Nevertheless his contribution is helpful to the great extent in understanding the origin and development of syncretistic images. For the firut time, he clearly says that the foreign invasions in India is one of the factors of the origin of these images. 4) C . Si varamamurt i (1950, 1955, 1961, 1974, 1976 8< 1982) occasionally discusses these images giving his interpretations based on descriptions from Sanskrit literature. The importance of his work lies in comparison which he makes between the north Indian and south Indian images. There are two independent books on the subject under study authored by D .C .Bhattacharya (1980) and S.L.Nagar (1989). 1) For the first time Bhattacharya (1980) classifies these images considering the number of deities in a single body form like dual forms, multiple forms etc. However it lacks adequate descriptions which they deserve. In the present study it is aimed at to take this opportunity to classify images in a more scientific way which would complement Bhattacharya's work : making it a complete one. (Before Bhattacharya only Banerjea (1956) wrote a separate chapter as mentioned above, but he did not suggest any classification as such). Bhattacharya's work deals with images even from the modern period. Many a time they are tailored according to the fancy of the artist rather than the descriptions in the scriptures. Moreover it seems that his emphasis is on the reported ones from the Eastern part of the country and Nepal that too from the Pal and Sen periods which almost give an impression that they are not available in other parts of the country. An attempt, therefore, is made here in the following pages to deal with the images of this type which are found in the rest of the parts of the country. 2) Nagar's work (1989) is mostly based on the work done by J.N.Banerjea (195<f>). Nagar also classifies these deities though in different way i.e. composite forms of Siva, Visnu, Surya, Female deities and buddhist deities and those belonging to Jainism. However the syncretistic and composite deities are miKed-up here i.e. alongwith the image of Ardhanarisvara, Hari-Hara, Trimurti etc. images of Matsyavatara, Kurmivatara, Nrasimhavatara, Hayagriva, Ganapati, Garuda, Nandi, Gahdharva, Kinnara and Vyala etc. are also included. It is difficult to accept the latter deities as syncretistic icons. In the works of number of scholars like Sir John Marshall (1911-12 1931), Spooner (1913-14), D.C.Sircar (1930, 1970 and 1971), Stella Kramrisch (197^), Alice Getty (1936), Khare (1938 1958), R.C.Agrawal (1954, 1964-65, 1967 & 1971-72), R.C.Agrawal & D.C.Bhattacharya (1959), S.K .Saraswati (1958), P.Pal (1964-65, 1970, 1985 & 1989), (1965), M.A.Dhakey (1967), Kalpana Desai (1967 & 1973), N.P.Joshi (1972 & 1989), Krishna Deva (1984), R.C.Dhere (1984), V.Mishra (1984), B.S.Deshmukh (1987) and Dange (Vol.I to V 1987) etc. occasional references are found. These ofcourse are not adequate for our purpose. I am benefited by the scholarly works of many of these authors. X — X — X— X — X 8.